The whole of Sri Lanka—North, East, West, and South—is united by a band of steel: the Railway. Alas, over the years it has been badly neglected and left to rust its way to oblivion. It connects the ports of Colombo, Trincomalee, Galle and Kankesanturai. It also connects Talaimannar and Batticaloa, Puttalam and Matara. It penetrates the beautiful Blue Mountains to Kandy and Matale, Nanu Oya and Badulla, and did connect Yatiyantota and Opanayake.

The Railway, once known as Ceylon Government Railways, was conceived in the 1850’s as an tool to develop and unify the country. The first sod of the Railways was cut by Sir Henry Ward, the Governor, in August in1858. The first train ran on 27th December 1864, with the construction of the Main Line from Colombo to Ambepussa, 54 kilometers to the north-east. This line was officially opened for traffic on 2nd. October 1865. The Railway extended and developed it’s network and by 1927, a total route length of 1530 km was in operation.

The first rolling stock landed in the Island in 1864. These locomotives were 4-4-0 Type, two wheeled coupled with a tender, with a fuel capacity of five tons and 15,200, gallons of water. The length was 15 metres over buffers and 66 metric tonnes in weight. These locomotives were in use till 1926. Three and four driving wheel locomotives, with saturated steam super-heater boilers were introduced 1915. Garrett class double-headed locomotives were introduced in 1928 to eliminate the need for a second locomotive to haul trains over a gradient of 1 in 44 on the Up-country lines. In 1954, the Canadian Government gifted the M2 class General Motors Electric Locomotives of 1310 H.P. In the mid 1950s, Hydraulic Power Coachers were introduced for a faster and cleaner service for office workers. A landmark in the history of the Railway was the complete dieselization of it’s motive power in 1969 by the introduction of 88 Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives.

In a developing country like ours where every dollar, euro, pound and yen should count, it is the most economical transport facility per tonne-kilometre. More could be hauled by one medium-size freight train hauling 15 40-tonne wagons than could be done by 200 three tonners. One passenger train can bring 5,000 commuters, which would need 50 buses each carrying 100 passengers in great discomfort. One freight train could transport 450,000 litres of fuel (diesel, kerosene, or petrol), replacing over 10-15 bowsers on the road. However, with the hard facts of economy on its side the Railway has been and continues to be a gargantuan White Elephant. It has been so for decades.

The first-rank culprits to be indicted are politicians from the days of the State Council. They were subtly converted and subsequently bought-over and bankrolled by the transport agent—motor spares dealer—tyre importer and oil importer axis. This unholy league began by lobbying stridently for the Motor Traffic Ordinance in the late Thirties and this was continued with supplementary legislation that transformed the Railway into a colonial holdover and White Elephant.

The second-rank culprits are the Railway employees and their highly-politicized trade unions. Railway employees, unlike most public servants, are a privileged lot. They enjoy the benefits of housing, free uniforms, free travel on the Railway and so on. These employees, so vociferous about their ‘rights’ malinger. They also pilfer, steal, and rob the Railway blind of its stores—from the Railway Workshops at Ratmalana and Dematagoda to every other Railway store. They hardly work during normal hours and work hard after hours to earn overtime. In these and numerous other ways they add to the bills for waste and loss on a recurring basis.

The third-rank culprits are the urban commuters themselves, thousands of whom travel without tickets daily. Enforcement by the breed known as Travelling Ticket Inspectors and the Railway Security Service is extremely poor.

The forth-rank culprits are successive myopic governments pandering to their transient vote banks by compelling the Railway to run on totally unreasonable fares and freight rates.

The Railway should become a commercially-viable outfit run on business-like lines. It should also be converted into a public-private partnership corporation and personnel management, fiscal administration, and modernization made priorities. Primarily, Railway administration has to be taken away from the stultifying Public Sector environment of archaic ARs and FRs and political interference as these are serious constraints. Its liberation from these would mean a new era for it. That’s been said before but without any ideas on how this may be accomplished in the short-term. Let’s see how this could be done:

Point One: The Railway is one of the largest owners of public lands in the country and it has several hundred stations, some very big and others mere wayside halts. Most of the bigger stations have sidings and attached goods sheds. Each of these could be made into a focal point for economic development for a radius of 40 kilometres (25 miles). Each of these stations could become a containerized cargo transport terminal [CCTT] that would provide the much-needed catalyst for rapid industrial development. Private Sector investment could begin to expand outwards from these designated focal points on the Railway. It could also provide a fresh impetus to budding agri-business enterprises.

Point Two: The Railway could become a shareholder in the development of such new, big or small ports as KKS, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Oluvil, Hambantota, Matara, Galle, Negombo, Chilaw, Puttalam and Talaimannar. One area of renewal could be a modernized fishing industry with in-situ canning plants at the smaller ports.

Point Three: The Railway could actively promote the Indo-Sri Lanka rail-road link across Adam’s Bridge and convert the Port of Trincomalee into a major international container trans-shipment terminal (ICTT). This means and implies Indian industrial exports going through Sri Lanka and would also constitute an invitation to India to invest heavily in Sri Lanka’s industrial development in the Vanni, the North-central and Eastern provinces, the equation being: Productive Employment=Prosperity=Peace for all. The Government of Sri Lanka is trying to breathe life into the former war zone and revive its economic life. This Proposal could result in a win-win situation for all those who are vitally concerned with peace and development.

Such a bridge would help Sri Lanka reclaim its regional identity and be part of the Asian continent.

When built, the bridge, over the existing Adam’s Bridge of sand banks, would almost be like an umbilical cord between the two sister countries, linked to each other through culture, religion, shared values, and languages.

A new land bridge with India it will revolutionize travel and bring thousands of Indian tourists to Sri Lanka. Many feel strongly that such a project would revive the Island’s north and east whose progress had been retarded by the 33-year old ethnic war, now history.

When a new multipurpose bridge is constructed it would further strengthening the bonds of friendship between Sri Lanka and India. The Indian Government has mooted plans to build an Expressway and a rail track linking the two countries. These will be built as part of the Inter Asia Expressway and the Inter Asia Railways link. This would also be an opportunity to further strengthen the relations with India which will become the largest trading partner in the South Asian region following the building of the new bridge.

It would also mean imports to the sub-continent passing through Trincomalee and Adam’s Bridge. The feasibility of this project has been studied in-depth by the engineering fraternity on both sides of the Palk Straits in over half-a-dozen conferences and both its practicability and profitability have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt. Given the distances covered, Indian port congestion and other constraints, railway is a better mode of transport to link the sub-continent with Sri Lanka.

Point Four: The Railway should modernize and get real about modern passenger and freight transportation. One way is for all long distance passenger trains to be operated by Private Sector companies in partnership with the Railway and this combination should be providing a de luxe level of service. Special trains could cater to tourists and a ‘Blue Mountain Express’ from Colombo to Badulla via Kandy would take in the unrivalled beauty of Sri Lanka. Another, from Colombo to KKS, known as the ‘Northern Princess’ could introduce foreign visitors to the Heartland Cultural Triangle, Anuradhapura and the exotic Jaffna Peninsula. The tracks from Vavuniya to KKS are now being reconstructed and when the KKS cement plant is functional again, cement will begin to flow South. Likewise a ‘Southern Princess’ could take our foreign guests to Bentota, Galle, Matara, and Hambantota with visits to Kataragama and Yala. These would all be a premium rates paid for in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. One of our steadfast benefactors, Japan, could provide the expertise, technological input and even capital as this is a project that could earn the country much foreign exchange.

A revitalization of the Railway could also lead to a massive agricultural diversification programme, especially in the 186-year old Plantation Sector. This area of enterprise could be opened to tourism, forestry, market gardening, animal husbandry (especially milk production), commercial fruit orchards, canning, and a host of micro-level cottage industries. It would also take new development to all the now-peripheral areas of the country, reducing the pressure of population on the Western Province and the District of Colombo.

Our Railway is a precious resource. It is a steel band that unifies. Let’s clean it up, transform it, and through it, inaugurate prosperity for ALL.